As my due date is just days away I wanted to take a moment to talk about an important decision we recently made for our family. Cord blood banking was first brought to my attention by my OB when I was pregnant with Nash. I knew very little about it, but I knew it sounded like something I wanted to do. I planned to do lots of research to understand why we should do it and which company to bank with, but Nash decided he wanted to join our family a little early and was born almost 6 weeks early and because of this we were rushed to make a decision. We ended up banking Nash’s cord blood, which I am very thankful we did! Now, as Nash’s brother is on his way, I decided it was time to really understand the benefits of banking cord blood and how it can help our family. I’m going to share some of the things I’ve found that helped us make our decision to do it once again and why we chose CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank to store it.
Background on Stem Cells
A little background first. Cord blood is the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta after birth. It is collected after the birth of the baby, when the cord is clamped and cut. (This does not in any way hurt mom or the baby.) The blood found in the cord contains stem cells, which have a rare capacity to migrate to wherever they are needed to replace or heal damaged cells or tissue. Blood stem cells are highly concentrated in the cord blood and cord blood is often a better source of cells for transplant than bone marrow.
Now, I assume you’ve heard about stem cells like me, but I had no idea what specifically stems cells could be used for. Well it turns out that stem cells can treat all kinds of illnesses. Here’s a LIST of the more than 70 life-threatening diseases cord blood has been used to treat. Some of the big ones are leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell disease. There’s also hundreds of clinical trials using cord blood to treat Diabetes, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Strokes, Neonatal and Pediatric Brain Injuries, Alzheimer’s and Spinal Cord Injury.
So basically, families that chose to store their babies’ cord blood would benefit from having their families’ cord blood stem cells banked for the possible use in any of the current and future potential uses of cord blood. They are a 100% exact match for your baby and 30% exact or very close match for each sibling. These banked cells may provide families with better and possibly more economical options for treatment for various conditions and diseases.
Why I chose CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank
There are several companies out there that store cord blood so I decided to do some research to find out which one’s the best. It really wasn’t a difficult decision once I started to compare the companies, CORD:USE is far superior. First, the experts of Cedars Sinai Medical Center determined that CORD:USE was the highest quality bank, so they have an exclusive partnership with CORD:USE. Second, they are led by a team of the world’s leading physicians and scientists who started the field of cord blood banking, transplantation and research. Under their leadership, CORD:USE benefits from their team’s more than 150 years of cord blood experience and thus uses the most advanced technologies to protect families’ cord blood. These technologies include:
- Award-winning exclusively utilized shipping technology
- Automated processing technology
- Advanced cord blood specific robotic cryogenic storage technology
No other bank uses this combination of highly advanced technologies.
Click HERE to learn more.
CORD:USE cord blood units have been used in more transplants in the past 9 years than the two largest family cord blood banks have been involved in over their combined past 43 years of business. This was something that really stood out to me, not only are they pioneers in the industry but their cord blood units have been used in transplants more than their competitors, so I know they’ve got the experience and the proven results.
Private Banking & Public Cord Blood Banks
Now of course I’m hoping I never have to use the cord blood I’ve stored for both Nash and his brother, but it’s nice to know that our family will have the option should we need it. Another option if you aren’t interested in storing your baby’s cord blood for private banking you can choose to do a public donation which goes into the public inventory and/or research. There are thousands of children and adults searching for a match each day so this could be an amazing way to help save a life.
CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank operates nation leading private/family and public cord blood banks. CORD:USE was chosen by HRSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help build the National Cord Blood Inventory. Since CORD:USE operates private and public banks, they are uniquely qualified to educate parents on the above options they can elect to choose to do with their babies’ cord blood.
Public cord blood banks are regulated by more stringent guidelines than family cord blood banks. CORD:USE Family Cord Blood Bank protects family banked cord blood in its state-of-the-art laboratory utilizing similar high-quality cord blood banking practices and technologies that are used in its leading public cord blood bank.
I hope this information has shed some light on what went into my decision to bank both of my children’s cord blood. One thing I definitely wanted to point out is cord blood banking is not expensive. I think a misconception out there is that it’s going to cost $10,000 to store your baby’s cord blood and that’s just not the case. I have some amazing news to share! CORD:USE is going to give ALL of my followers an amazing discount of $400 off their first year of Cord Blood Banking! When you call, mention either my blog or our HashTag #CORDUSEGiveaway. If you’d like more information about CORD:USE you can call 1-888-CORDUSE or click HERE to enroll now.
Now you know whenever I find a product or service that I LOVE, I always try to work with the company to give away something to one to my followers SO…CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank is allowing me to giveaway $1,000 off your first year of Cord Blood Banking! I know, amazing!
Make sure to enter below. One winner will be chosen on Father’s Day so good luck!